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Working with Classes, Arrays, and Binary Files in C#

This exercise focuses on working with classes, arrays, and binary files in C#. The goal is to create three classes: Table, SetOfTables, and a test program. The SetOfTables class will contain an array of Table objects and two methods to dump all data from the array into a binary file and restore the data from the file. This exercise demonstrates how to work with multiple classes, manage arrays of objects, and use binary file handling in C#.



Group

Object Persistence in C#

Objective

1. Create a class named Table that will hold information like table number and capacity.
2. Create a class named SetOfTables that will contain an array of Table objects.
3. Implement two methods in the SetOfTables class: one to dump all the table data to a binary file, and another to restore the data from the binary file.
4. Create a test program to demonstrate the functionality by dumping and restoring the array of tables.

Expand the exercise (tables + array + files) by creating three classes: Table, SetOfTables, and a test program. The SetOfTables class should contain an array of tables, as well as two methods to dump all data from the array into a binary file and restore data from the file.

Example C# Exercise

 Copy C# Code 
using System;
using System.IO;

class Table
{
    // Properties of the Table class
    public int TableNumber { get; set; }
    public int Capacity { get; set; }

    // Constructor for the Table class
    public Table(int tableNumber, int capacity)
    {
        TableNumber = tableNumber;
        Capacity = capacity;
    }
}

class SetOfTables
{
    // Array of Table objects
    public Table[] Tables { get; set; }

    // Constructor to initialize the SetOfTables with a specified size
    public SetOfTables(int size)
    {
        Tables = new Table[size];
    }

    // Method to dump all data from the array into a binary file
    public void DumpDataToFile(string fileName)
    {
        using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create))
        {
            using (BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(fs))
            {
                // Writing the length of the array first
                writer.Write(Tables.Length);

                // Writing each table's data to the file
                foreach (Table table in Tables)
                {
                    writer.Write(table.TableNumber);
                    writer.Write(table.Capacity);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    // Method to restore data from the binary file into the array
    public void RestoreDataFromFile(string fileName)
    {
        using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Open))
        {
            using (BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(fs))
            {
                // Reading the length of the array first
                int length = reader.ReadInt32();
                Tables = new Table[length];

                // Reading each table's data and restoring the array
                for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
                {
                    int tableNumber = reader.ReadInt32();
                    int capacity = reader.ReadInt32();
                    Tables[i] = new Table(tableNumber, capacity);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Creating a SetOfTables object with 3 tables
        SetOfTables setOfTables = new SetOfTables(3);
        setOfTables.Tables[0] = new Table(1, 4);
        setOfTables.Tables[1] = new Table(2, 6);
        setOfTables.Tables[2] = new Table(3, 8);

        // File name where the data will be stored
        string fileName = "tablesData.bin";

        // Dumping the table data into the binary file
        setOfTables.DumpDataToFile(fileName);
        Console.WriteLine("Data dumped to binary file.");

        // Creating a new SetOfTables object to restore data
        SetOfTables restoredSet = new SetOfTables(0);
        restoredSet.RestoreDataFromFile(fileName);
        Console.WriteLine("Data restored from binary file:");

        // Displaying the restored table data
        foreach (Table table in restoredSet.Tables)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Table {table.TableNumber}, Capacity: {table.Capacity}");
        }
    }
}

 Output

Data dumped to binary file.
Data restored from binary file:
Table 1, Capacity: 4
Table 2, Capacity: 6
Table 3, Capacity: 8

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